Always a good question Orangina.

I see the soul as the mediator between spirit and matter.

Like a spiritual eye, the soul reflects God in it's image.

"Matter is the vehicle for the manifestation of soul on this plane of existence, and soul is the vehicle on a higher plane for the manifestation of spirit, and these three are a trinity synthesized by life, which pervades them all."
- The Tibetan

The relationship between body and soul is both psychic and physical. The soul, it's been said, can see in three different directions at once:

 1. It can focus on the physical, when the latter becomes sensitive enough to respond.

  2. It is aware of itself and is therefore "group conscious" of all the other souls in creation.

 3 . It is always God-Aware and therefore "Cosmic Conscious" of the eternal.

The soul is our first Master.

I can say with some certainty that consciousness transcends matter and that this consciousness continues to exist after the death of the body.

Our consciousness or soul develops within the material of the brain but is much more than matter and energy that can be measured.

Our soul or consciousness is more than the chemistry of the brain but is a part of, or an expression of the Eternal which exists beyond this world.

Soul, to me, is the sum total of what makes each of us human. The arrangement of our neurons, the memories and personality traits encapsulated in that arrangement, the quirks and eccentricities, the creativity, and so on. Is it something eternal that goes on after we die? I'm agnostic on an afterlife, but I see no reason to suppose that it does, save in the marks that we leave on the world and other people. And I, for one, want those marks to be positive ones.

Mendalla

Bingo.  I see the soul as a vector -- a vapour trail of where we've been.  Every choice we make from moment to moment creates our "soul".

I would think that Genesis 2:7 simply means that with the breath of life man became a living being within the material world.

I don't see the soul as something that's created by our physical, emotional and mental experiences or something that is created upon our birth, (and kind of hangs around us during our life like some kind of balloon on a string, and only comes into play only when we die and sometimes only if we've been good enough or chosen in our lives).

Rather than the soul being a reflection of "us" I see us rather being a reflection of "soul", like a 3rd-dimensional shadow of a 4th-dimensional part of our Being. The soul gains experience and grows in awareness with each new life that it undertakes.

Awareness is the reflection of the Self, which is the soul, and through awareness we come to know ourselves. As we grow in awareness we eventually come be 'One with our Father'.

The soul is the consciousness aspect of our three-fold Being, life-consciousness-form. Or in another term, spirit-soul-personality. It's only on the personality level that we experience a sense of separation.

Our personality is in turn made up of three vehicles, the physical-emotional-mental bodies. These are "temples of the Lord", the forms through which consciousness expresses itself.

It's our constant identification with the personality that gives us the fear and loathing of death that we have. Death, however, is but the death of the form aspect of our being, it is not the death of the soul.

Upon death, the consciousness begins to withdraw its energy from the dense physical body, only to find itself on the astral (emotional) plane of nature. And depending on how we built this body up during our life time with our hopes, fears, aggressions, hatreds, etc., will depend of what type of thought forms need to be dissolved on this plane before the soul can move on. This is the "second death".

Hell is actually the hell of our own desires, our atrocities, the separations and grudges and fears that we've built up during our lives. This is why the teachers of our world have always taught us to control our thoughts and emotional reactions. We do have to face them them in the end.

Eventually the soul withdrawals it's energy from the astral plane and begins to experience the mental plane, a much more heavenly state than before. But this is also a temporary abode as the soul's true and natural state is in upper and formless side of the mental plane. This is the true "pralaya" or "devachan" where the soul lives in a non-mental, non-astral and non-material state of existence.

Devachan is a Sanskrit word that describes a "heavenly world where weary souls rest, refresh the spirit, and experience no pain in a spirit reality"

Like Einstein stated: somethings are equivaent but different ... then mortals often don't see IT that way due to pressure put on them by divine authority that is mostly crap ... fecundity for learning?

Then we are told not to think by most powerful authorities ... as they have decided they will think for us as being on top of the pile. Problem is those on top can't see what supports them .. sort of a mind over matter enigma ... Xenos Paradox ... we don't know the other half of IT that keeps receding as a meek mind ... thin space that will inheret all this dirt when it bloes up in their face ... ruagh winds, or pneuma in LGK's context. Mneumonic?

Is intellect communicated in word and wee folk are mostly told to shut up ... don't ask, look, listen .... and for God's ache don't even think about ID ... most don't ... like a pain in space of the mind over manna. Did you know manna was considered unnatural, or supernatural in Polynesian tongues? Sort of like the wind causing ripples on the waters, but that could just be  a deistic allegory! Condemned by the rigid stoics who like calm in their space ... dead minds walking ... Zoombeas?

Some times I take the whole thing as a joke on mortals by the powers above that are denied by m'n as thin space ... quick san on the beach ... Mir ligne! How many ways can ID be said ... let me count the ways? Isn't that multiply divine!

So is the soul a living thing that can die?

Here's something that comes from the Christodelphians. Are they close?

http://www.learnbible.net/soul.html

To me, the soul is the part of us that continues on forever, the part of us that is emotion and thought, the part of us that makes us uniquely us, the part of us that hungers for more than the world has to offer.

Exactly. What the scientist calls energy, the religious call God, or IT. Science has proven this fundamental axiom: that there is nothing in the whole of the manifested universe but energies, all of which are vibrating to a particular frequency and all of which interact.

Spirit is a word that is interchangeble with the word energy. It's in spirit is where God first manifests ITSelf into matter. And matter itself is recognized by science as "frozen energy".

There is nothing is our universe that is not spirit-energy.

Hi Neo,

I've always believed that the soul is our connection to the divine, but I found it interesting in the site that I copied that they used the bible as their definition of the soul. And how it doesn't match up with our perception or reasonings of today. Especially the part that suggests our explanations today match more with the Greek explanation rather than the Bibles. And the part that Paul was trying to keep us from believing as the Greeks do?

I just wondered if we were all going off with our own personal interpretation and disregarding the Bibles or if the Christodelpians were completely wrong.

Is that crazy, Anon-sense or just passion that'll screw up any sense of thinking body? That's along with the physical senses that is ... all 5! Penne duh tuck?

Look up in your concordance the number of times "fool" is represented in the holy bo'que ... perhaps It'll give yah a clue about Love/God and all those other extrenuous allegories! Did the vast creative force need entertainment while man was boring in space? Das mine ... like a blip in a void ... a' Gape'? Have reverence for the holy space ... the minds like that Ephraim'd in the west ... says so in the script! The mine is a happy thing if man would stop trying to bury it as an able bit of Anon-sense ... it'll jiggle if you allow it freedom!

Did you know that mnemonics states that man can learn nothing without a story and man hates stories in his seach for truth ... so he misses the whole point of IT all even people like Dawkins and Eve Angleicals! All for entertainment of the bored powers above ... Planque'd Constant?

Few will offer to walk such a flat road .... aftrer living a lifetime with man ... they don't trust a thing and will question all ... says so in the bo'que. Am'n isn't there yet .. accepting a great bunch by faith ... where it's just endless entanglement with sex and sects and man doen't know the difference in the wondering wobble ... like a wouffe on the loam ... wild weaving all about the truth which is not physically sensed ... something else eh?

Wow, I wish I knew what that means! LOL

Sounds pretty cool non the less.

I believe that our soul has the ability to last forever.

Our bodies could last a very long time actually, but in this state of our condition our bodies are run down & worn prematurely due to the abuse of our bodies in many ways.

Some have been on this earth many times over & some not.

Our shell & the blood that runs through it creates an energy that binds the soul to the body, & when the energy of the body expires, the soul is free.

Free, until the next time if God so chooses to allow us to live again on this earth, or not.

Soon this age will be over & our souls will have new bodies that will not ever be at risk of damage.

Bolt

Or Just Read ---Ecclesiastes-12-7 Here a very smart man knows more than I do. He's a king .

I don't liek the idea of an immortal soul. If the soul is immortal where was it the last eternity before it got into a body and where is it going the next eternity without the body?

If the soul is immortal, why does it have to exist in a mortal body? It doesn't make sense becasue the immortality of the soul is an import of the Greek philosophy which I believe was a huge mistake because it makes human beigns look like God and it creates the illusion that we have to suffer an eternity for less or more than 100 years of sin. Thus the hell is a false doctrin of pagan origin.

I like Arminius' explanation here and think science will eventually put this age old question to rest once and for all. Science will one day prove the existence of the human soul and therefore prove scientifically that we cannot die. This will likely come initially in the form of capturing high energy images of the human aura but will eventually lead to the actual discovery of the higher realms and the multidimensional aspects of our being.

The Christodelpians web site says that "GOD HIDES THE TRUTH FROM ALL BUT A FEW". This is very true and always has been. The mysteries of the Bible are tied up in myth and double meanings and sometimes only a Master of Wisdom can plumb the true depths of what is meant at it's deepest level.

I read once that the Bible is shallow enough for those who can't yet swim, yet deep enough for the largest whale in the ocean. With that said, however, the Bible has also fallen victim to interpretation, translation, re-interpretation and re-translation again, but perhaps this thread isn't the place for this discussion.

I don't believe these Christodelpians are completely wrong. They do, however, seem to have a strong separatist view of the world where only the readers and believers of the Bible are worthy of any type of salvation. It's a little too conservative for me.

I personally don't see why it would matter if I believed in an eternal soul or not, or whether I preferred to read theosophy over theology, or whether I even believed in God or not. These are not the things that we will be judged for (imho).

Upon the scales of justice will lie how we treated our fellow man or woman in our life. Were we honest in how we lived our life? Were we sincere in how we dealt with others? Did we dogmatically hang on to beliefs or emotions or material wealth to the extent that it made ourselves or others suffer? These are the things that matter. It won't be if you were a Christian or Muslim or what have you. These are man-made religions that are there to help us on the way. They are the means to the end, not the end themselves.

 Sorry for soapboxing again folks, I tend to get a little passionate about these subjects. 
 

Is the soul something we are supposed to learn about?

Then I've been told by many that life is not for learning but loving, so we screw ourselves senseless and it falls down around us.

Perhaps it would take many cycles of life to get people to learn ... thsu the immortal soul ... hommoe of the mind, heart and all the tiye that binds it together in a word ... God ... infnite?

Who woulda rote such a satyr? Its beyond me1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9JB2ETgatI

So wait - no-one's willing to speak of the soul as a purely metaphysical entity.  But everyone keeps saying it's a sort of synthesis of 'body' and 'spirit' - body being entirely physical, and 'spirit', implicitly, metaphysical.  So what the hell is 'spirit' then?

I personally think of 'soul' as consciousness, divorced from its causes.  A lot of scientists say 'consciousness' is a purely physical, chemical phenomenon.  I would say it is caused by a physical phenomenon, but becomes something transcendent.  Not metaphysical, or separated from the body - I very much doubt it outlasts the body (its 'power source') as well - but essentially undefinable, in the sense that the most you can define it - which would probably be defining it by its causes, or by its workings (psychology) - can still never come close to summing it up, as an EXPERIENCE.

Ichthys: I'd like to see a pagan religion with a notion of 'hell' nearly as defined as the monotheist one.

Well, there is the Greek Tartarus, I suppose.  But the idea that 'if you're bad, you will go to hell' was never as important a means of keeping people in line in pagan religions as it is in monotheistic ones.

That's partly because pagan religions kind of arose naturally out of societies, and reflected the memes and taboos of those societies, rather than trying to impose an elite's written set of rules.

Well it is the naure of evil that separates is it not?

If God can forgive anyone of anything, what does this tell us?

I says to me, that there is absolutely no excuse for there to be division any longer.

Bolt

Wow, great call on that brother!!!

Bolt

It all depends on your point of view. The separation occurs on the peripheral of the wheel, where our personalities reside in time and space. At the centre there is peace and the understanding that the whole works as One. This is the heart of consciousness.

Evil is everything that looks away from God. In life we find that we are either on the involutionary and downward facing road or we are on the evolutionary and upward facing road.

Like the in-breathing and the out-breathing of the soul so our personality looks either forwards or backwards.
 

Separation is an illusion. Unfortunately, many of us believe this illusion to be real. And, when we believe it to be real, then it becomes real for those of us who believe so.

The illusion of separation is the worst and most destructive of our many illusions.

To rid ourselves of the illusion of separateness, and experience the unity and oneness that underlies all being, is, or ought to be, our ultimate aim in life.

What is an unbound love?

It is dangerous ... without a clue! Some call this the ignorance felt while falling .... you just don't know what ...

Is it good to be sentient about you love's effect on the neighbour? Perhaps not if you would like to deny what you've done has screwed up the neighbour's life so that you could be better, and richer!

Ever hear that: "I'm good, I'm rich!" The conclusion doesn't always ring clear ...

Should one take care of the neighbour, that alien sort next door? Perhap it is good to set an example in case he learns from your past behaviour much better than you thought he would. You might then find yourself consumed, and digested ... so much fecundity for another cycle ... that's life in the real lane eh? Perhaps the metaphysical lane needs some attention ... for what it can shed to the earth as fallout ... the fall of man? Milton, Dante' you folk do have a grand sense of satire ...

Could we possibly learn something from that passing oddity we call Theo ... Th'aught in short supply ... in a fast world. Would a slowdown be beneficial ... like retreat to the wilderness as Yom Kippor ... basket cases under the moon'n dark Skye ... one cool fat, black laid-E ... thas movein experience ...

Now, now, Marzo, don't be facetious! Go and live in the Land of Oz for a while, and you'll learn to appreciate and perhaps even love those Aussies and their brand of humour.

Seriously, now. The destructiveness that plagues the world is not an illusion, but I think it is a direct outcome of the illusion of separation.

Of all that one should care to fathom, I

Was never deep in anything but—wine.

-Omar Khayyam

This "wine," of course, is the heady spiritual wine that Jesus and others poured.